Cards

Friday, April 29, 2016

2015 Topps Platinum

Soon after I set up my Zistle account, I received a trade proposal from user YorksJJr. We worked out a trade that centered around our team collections--I sent some Redskins his way, and got some good Packers in return. One of them was this 2015 Topps Platinum Jordy Nelson. Normally, I try to build the Topps Chrome set yearly, but I had been rather unimpressed with this year's Topps football design, and was a bit ambivalent about the Chrome set. But this Platinum, with its refractor-like qualities, full-bleed photo, and giant team logo in the background, caught my eye. I decided to Platinum this year instead. I'll have more on the rest of YorkJJr's trade later, but right now I'll show you my set build of this shiny, fine-looking product.

I bought a blaster box and a multi-pack rack pack and got off to a good start. The base set was beginning to grow, and I pulled a nice Mariota X-Fractor among the other rookie parallels in the box.

Then I got a nice bonus--a BCA Pink Refractor numbered to 10--and featuring Brett Hundley, who just happens to be a wearing my team's uniform. Not bad from a big box store blaster.

I ordered a hobby box from Dave & Adam's Card World and hoped that would get me pretty close to the 150-card set. Every hobby pack comes with a gold veteran parallel, and there are two autos and one auto-relic in every box. Since my aim in purchasing the box was to build the base set, I began to get worried as the packs were running low and I still hadn't pulled either of the two most expensive cards in the set: Mariota and Jameis Winston. I didn't really want to have to pay for both on the secondary market. But the last card of the last pack came up Jameis. Whew. That knocked at least one of them off my need list.

My biggest beef with this box is the collation. Maybe it was just dumb bad luck, but I pulled dupes of almost every card that I already had from the retail. Where are all the other players? Plus, every gold parallel in the box also included the base of the same player in the box. I'm not too upset about that; they are two different cards after all, but it makes me question why all the same players are lumped together all the time. Some of my golds were pretty good players, though. I've already completed sent Cam, Russell, and Eli out in trades.

The was one blue parallel: Panthers rookie Devin Funchess.

My two autos weren't all that noteworthy: La'el Collins and P.J. Williams.

The auto relic wasn't a great name, but it was a purple version. The three-color patch is nice and it has a print run of 10. It's a pretty nice looking card.

I came closer to set completion and a subsequent Zistle trade with Yorks brought me even closer. But I haven't told you the best part yet. The finale is . . .

a Sammie Coates black printing plate. Folks, you are witnessing the first 1 of 1 I have ever pulled. The first I have ever owned, in fact. Between the Jesse James and Sammie Coates, this was a great box for Steelers collectors.

Aside from the poor collation and dupes--seriously, I would have had the same percentage of the base set without spending a dime on the retail packs--I'm happy with the product. I like the design, pulled some super short prints, and even got a nice hit from my team of a blaster. Now to track down the other 30 or so cards I need.

On a side note, if you haven't checked out the contest on Sports Card Collectors' blog, get into it. Entry ends today, and you just have to let him know your favorite Topps product.